The Pentagon confirms 12 U.S. service members were killed and 15 more injured in an attack Thursday just outside Kabul’s airport. An Afghan health official estimates at least 60 civilian lives were lost, though the U.S. military has not confirmed an exact number. Two suicide bombers, believed to be ISIS fighters, detonated bombs at the airport’s Abbey gate and near the Baron Hotel.
More than 13,000 people have been evacuated in the past 24 hours. The Pentagon on Wednesday estimated more than 1,000 Americans are still in Afghanistan and tens of thousands more Afghans are seeking to get out. Despite the attack, the U.S. military is vowing to continue their mission, even as they say other “very real” “imminent” attacks against the airfield remain.
Some evacuees have already arrived in New Jersey at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, one of four U.S. military facilities taking in people fleeing Afghanistan. Up to 9,500 Afghan refugees could be coming to the New Jersey base.
